22-Year-Old MIT Student Makes History as NASA Engineer

Talk about #BlackGirlMagic! Meet Tiera Guinn, a 22–year-old student from MIT that is making history and carving her path as an innovator in the new generation.

Guinn, who is still in school and currently maintains a 5.0 GPA, is already working as a Rocket Structural Design and Analysis Engineer for the Space Launch System that Boeing is building for NASA. Her story will certainly call to mind the story in the recent hit movie Hidden Figures, one that Tiera says inspires her. “You should see a black woman as rocket propulsion engineers, as rocket structural and analysis and design engineers. You should see more women in CEO positions,” she said of wanting to see more diversity in her field, according to Vibe.

Since a young age, Tiera has always been a mathematician saying “When [my mom and I] would go to the grocery store, she would get me to clip coupons [and] put it in my coupon organizer,” she described to Alabama news station,WBRC. “By the time we got to the register, I’d have to calculate the exact total, including tax. And I did that since I was six years old.”

The brilliant mind is currently designing the “largest and most powerful” rocket in history. “I design components for the rockets themselves and then I analyze them to make sure they’re structurally sound,” she explained to the news station.

According to Essence, Guinn has plenty of advice to offer young women who are also chasing their dreams. “You have to look forward to your dream and you can’t let anybody get in the way of it,” she says, “No matter how tough it may be, no matter how many tears you might cry, you have to keep pushing. And you have to understand that nothing comes easy.”